Media companies are on the cusp of an industry-wide transformation as the impact of cloud platforms and their associated AI solutions becomes clear. Content creation and delivery is evolving rapidly as new uses for technology are discovered, making it a crucial element for the future of the industry. According to PWC’s August 2023 Pulse Survey, 67 percent of technology, media and telecommunications leaders say the capabilities of generative AI could make existing business models obsolete; This is a possibility that presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
“We understand why moving business to the cloud is problematic for some organizations,” he says. “But these partners are telling us: ‘I can’t move my content to the cloud, but I want to pretend it’s in the cloud and get the cloud experience.’ The question is: How can we help them do this?”
To answer this question, Microsoft is looking for an alternative solution that exists in the space between the on-premises and cloud worlds:
“It’s a hybrid approach,” Davis says. “Media organizations don’t want to connect completely to the cloud, putting all their operations in one basket. They want some things to stay at the edge of the network. Our goal is to build generalized edge devices that act like the cloud, but can be moved to where the content already resides in a simplified, cost-effective way.”
Microsoft offers a range of edge computing services that media organizations can use for a variety of solutions. For example, Azure IoT Edge enables IoT solutions to be managed from the edge, while Azure SQL Edge allows data to be streamed for real-time analysis. Additionally, Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution that hosts Windows and Linux virtual machines or containerized workloads and their storage. This connects the on-premises system to Azure for cloud-based services, monitoring and management.
One customer using Microsoft’s advanced computing capabilities is Digicel, which provides mobile phone network and home entertainment services in 25 countries in the Caribbean. As part of a comprehensive cloud transformation strategy supported by Microsoft partner Maureen Data Systems, Digicel is creating a landing zone and hybrid cloud environment using Azure Stack Hub and HCI in local markets for performance in a mixed physical and virtual environment. The implementation helped prevent outages in on-premises data centers and allowed Digicel to focus on increasing scalability and improving stability in its infrastructure.
“Microsoft is a long-standing partner with the most robust and complete approach and Azure offerings, including Edge Cloud,” said Melinda Lloyd, IT program and project manager at Digicel Group. “Given the dynamic locations in which we operate, this factor was a critical component. We made the right choice.”
Communications at the edge: Microsoft’s Rick Lievano explains how telecom operators can help deliver the future of edge computing
Telecommunications companies have a key role in enabling the implementation of edge computing solutions for all industries, including media, by providing the underlying infrastructure on which they rely.
“Telecommunications companies have physical locations in their headquarters, cell towers, and metro data centers that enable applications to be deployed as close to end users as possible,” says Rick Lievano, Microsoft’s worldwide chief technology officer for the telecommunications industry. “All sectors are looking at mobile operators
“Deliver this infrastructure with the connectivity offered by 5G low-latency connectivity and computing that enables many different use cases.”
To help telcos successfully enable edge computing solutions, Microsoft has developed a technology suite that will leverage the capabilities they already have.
Azure Private MEC allows operators to deploy private networks for their customers that leverage the long-term evolution of 5G or 4G and provide connectivity for edge devices. Meanwhile Azure
Overall MEC enables the full capabilities of Azure to be deployed at the operator’s edge closer to the end user, supporting critical workloads with ultra-low latency capabilities.
“If a studio is editing a large, multi-gigabyte file, shutting those files down to the public cloud every time you make a change can impact performance,” says Lievano. “But if cloud-based video editing applications were deployed in an edge location, say with AT&T, they would be much closer to where the studio was running, resulting in much better performance.”
Partner perspectives
We asked Microsoft partners Ateme and EZDRM how they are using cloud computing solutions to help deliver new capabilities for creating and delivering content.
“Partnering with Microsoft Azure Edge Computing is a big step for us in making content distribution even better,” says Yohann Guilloux, vice president of global partnerships at Ateme. “Microsoft’s technology powers our TITAN encoding and NEA distribution solutions, helping us deliver the highest quality streaming, super-fast delivery and minimal latency. “This means viewers get their favorite content faster and more seamlessly, resulting in a great viewing experience.”
“The digital rights management architecture as a cloud-centric service was an early call to action for the team at EZDRM,” says Olga Kornienko, chief operating officer and co-founder of EZDRM. “Deploying these services on Azure has become a key element of the company’s competitive position. “Innovation continues today for customers working with real-world constraints such as internet bandwidth and availability.”